Quotes about Numbness

But he had been so much hurt that something inside him had perished, some of his feelings had gone. There was a blank of insentience.

Then, when shame strikes, it is so nasty you have to numb yourself, and what better anesthetic than your addiction? It is the perfect vicious circle.

By default, most of us have taken the dare to simply survive. Exist. Get through. For the most part, we live numb to life - we've grown weary and apathetic and jaded... and wounded.

When a man cannot find meaning, he numbs himself with pleasure.

We can recognize, moreover, that a move beyond our tribalism never happens in the ordinary. It takes a miracle, or a jolt, or a gift, or killing (as in Charleston) to awaken us from our tribal numbness, to see and act afresh.

The Scriptures say that we should not fear those things which can destroy the body, but we are to fear that which can destroy the soul (Matt. 10:28). While the ghettos may have their share of violence and crime, the suburbs are the home of the more subtle demonic forces—numbness, complacency, comfort—and it is these that can eat away at our souls.

Clearly, human transformative activity depends upon a transformed imagination. Numbness does not hurt like torture, but in a quite parallel way, numbness robs us of our capability for humanity.

What numbs us imprisons us.

The task of prophetic imagination is to cut through the numbness, to penetrate the self-deception, so that the God of endings is confessed as Lord. Notice that I suggest for the prophet in a really numbed situation a quite elemental and modest task.

While the ghettos may have their share of violence and crime, the posh suburbs are home to more subtle demonic forces--numbness, complacency and comfort. These are the powers that can eat away at our souls.

Stinking thinking' is the universal addiction." This is one of the most stunning, succinct, and profound sentences I've ever read. And this is indeed a book for anyone and everyone who cannot stop creating trances and numbness via alcohol, drugs, sex, workaholism, or toxic, obsessive thinking.

How do I wake up to joy and grace and beauty and all that is the fullest life when I must stay numb to losses and crushed dreams and all that empties me out?